Hopi relics sold after French court gives OK

Supporters of the Hopi cause Friday hold an American Indian Movement flag outside of the Druout's auction house in Paris.

Photo: Michel Euler / Associated Press

PARIS — In a chaotic auction repeatedly interrupted by protests, dozens of American Indian tribal artifacts were sold Friday after a French court ignored the objections of the Hopi tribe and the U.S. government.

The total tally was $1.2 million, with the most expensive, the “Mother Crow,” selling for $209,000 — more than three times the pre-sale estimate.

Of the 70 masklike objects up for sale, one was bought by an association to give back to the Hopis, the Drouot auction house said.

Advocates for the Hopi tribe had argued in court the items have special status and are not art — they represent their dead ancestors' spirits. The Hopi, a Native American tribe whose territory is surrounded by Arizona, nurture the artifacts as if they are the living dead.

But the auctioneer insisted any move to block the sale could have broad repercussions for the art market in general and potentially force French museums to empty their collections of indigenous works.

The Katsinam, or “friends,” made up nearly all of the 70 lots that went on display at the auction house, offering a rare public glimpse of such works in Europe.

The items — surreal faces made from wood, leather, horse hair and feathers — are painted in vivid pigments of red, blue, yellow and orange.

They date to the late 19th century and early 20th century and are thought to have been taken from a reservation in northern Arizona in the 1930s and 1940s.

Hopi representatives contend the items were stolen and wanted the auction house to prove otherwise.

As the auction got underway 21/2 hours after the court ruling, Jo Beranger, a 52-year-old French filmmaker, yelled as auctioneers showed a 1970s image of a Hopi leader in tribal beads and holding a Katsina.

Beranger said in an interview the Hopi leader had since died and it was “a scandal” and “shameful” that he was shown. Security guards escorted her out of the auction hall.

About a dozen protesters from a French group that sides with the Hopi gathered outside — one waving the flag of the American Indian Movement.

In Arizona, Hopi Chairman Le Roy Shingoitewa said the judge's decision to let the sale go on was disappointing but not unexpected.

“It's a whole new legal field that many tribes have not truly experienced,” he said. “So I think the Native American tribes in the United States are going to have to start looking at this area of being able to try to protect our cultural areas as well as sacred sites.”

Shingoitewa said the tribe did not attempt to bid on the objects Friday. He said he was saddened to know that many people will treat the objects as art when they have deep religious significance to the tribe and are never up for display on the reservation.

“Maybe in their hearts, they may feel that they can return them back to the place they started and the home they had,” he said. “That would be my plea.”

The Associated Press is not transmitting images of the objects because the Hopi have long kept the items out of public view and consider it sacrilegious for any images of the objects to appear.